The last ratings numbers I saw did not bode well for a second season for Neil deGrasse Tyson and “Cosmos.” It’s a shame – the graphics were extraordinary and I thought he did a great job of explaining key concepts through story and illustration.
Still, the show shed two million viewers from the premiere to the final episode, and did not do well in the 18-49 lifeblood demo.
Rats.
Not sure cancellation is the right tern to use here. According to the Big Thee creative team involved (McFarland, NDGT, Druyan), there has never been a second season or series planned.
The concept was for a short series much like the original COSMOS series. I suppose if ratings were through the roof, and there was great wailing and gnashing of teeth, another series could happen, but it was never in the original plans.
We’ve known that the cosmos was finite for quite some time. What’s yer beef?
I think it will do well on DVD and streaming video when it’s complete and can be watched without commercials.
It was planned as one season but I suspect if the ratings had held (as I recall the first few episodes did reasonably well) FOX would have asked for a second one. I haven’t seen the last one yet but I enjoyed the show immensely.
Errr… “we” didn’t know that, I’m afraid.
And I don’t think I’m alone in my ignorance: plenty of sites that discuss cancelled v renewed shows have mentioned that Cosmos is likely to be cancelled without mentioning that this was the plan all along.
So – I’m ignorant, but not lonely. 
ETA:
I just now got that. Which, I guess, proves the point I was making in an entirely different way. 
I think you missed a whoosh there.
ETA: missed your ETA.
It was released yesterday.
You can currently stream it from the http://www.cosmosontv.com/ web site. They put each episode a few days after the initial broadcast. They do not have the commercials.
I really, really wanted to like this show. Too bad. I blame Seth MacFarlane.
Yeah, this run does seem satisfactorily self-contained, the last ep did look like a finale, as would be expected for a project that was known would only get another season only IF there were large demand for more.
In a way, as with other imagination-heavy shows, the limitations of the time worked to make the original come across better at times. Sagan’s show was on Public TV in the Broadcast Network age, and the technological and budgetary elements forced it to put to use its mightiest asset, Sagan himself and his words and his delivery. Tough act to follow.
Well, the new series really had to big disadvantages over the original. One, commercial breaks. It was impossible to immerse yourself into the narrative because it was getting interrupted every 10 minutes. Two, the music. In the original it was Vangelis (who does “ethereal” better than anybody) along with world music and some appropirate classical pieces. The soundtrack for the series was a pure joy all by itself. On this series, it was almost all mediocre Alan Silvestri work. Very forgettable.
I sort of liked it. It didn’t thrill or excite me, but I learned a lot (not that I can remember any of that). Seemed to be 50% animation, though, which was sometimes a bit of a slog.
It’s Fox. It’s lucky it made it through its only season.
The original Cosmos was a product of the pre-cable, pre-internet early 1980’s.
It worked because it was unique, and the new Cosmos wasn’t.
And every episode was shown in order.
It wasn’t just shown on Fox, though. It was also on USA and I think one more cable channel. Just basising the viewership on Fox’s ratings is meaningless. There are viewers on other channels that have to be taken into account as well as online.
Have you seen any Prof Brian Cox? He is essentially the UK’s equivalent to Neil Degrasse Tyson (as well as being a CERN scientist), and has been making shows for several years. Check out his “Wonders of the Solar System”, “Wonders of the Universe” and “Wonders of Life”
Fwiw, you may get US-speaking voiceovers but the BBC will continue to knock this stuff out (whether it’s Cox on the universe, Attenborough on the planet, etc, etc) until hell freezes over - as part of the public service remit:
That would be “Winders” of the Universe. I alwasy like to point out how he started as a rock star. Well, not so much “rock” or “star” but his band D-Ream did chart with Things Will Only Get Better.